^    ^  UC-NRLF 

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The  Cradle  of  the  Farm 
Bureau  Idea  and  Marketing 
Possibilities  of  the  Bureau 


■e- 


An  Address  By 
GEORGE  A.  CULLEN 

Vice-President  of  the  North  American  Fruit  Exchange 


At  the 


ANNUAL    OUTDOOR    MEETING    OF    THE 

BROOME  COUNTY  (N.  Y.)  FARM  BUREAU 

iO  BINGHAMTON,  N.  Y„  AUGUST  21st.,  1920. 

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ADDRESS  BY   GECRiGE  A.  CULLEM''-'. 

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Members  of  the   Broome  County  Farm  Bureau,   Ladies  and 

Gentlemen : 

In  turning  the  pages  of  history,  one  of  the  facts  that  im- 
presses us  with  force  is  the  long  reach  of  time  that  has  seemed 
necessary  before  men  gain  a  clear  perspective  as  to  the  value 
of  the  services  rendered  by  intrepid  pioneers  in  the  fields  of 
constructive  thought.  This  applies  with  special  force  to  the 
earlier  stages  of  our  civilization..  It  required  the  passage  of 
many  centuries  for  the  world  to  sense  the  power  and  spiritual 
beauty  of  the  Star  of  Bethlehem,  and  to  invest  the  little  Judean 
village  with  hallowed  associations.  And  so,  also,  the  birth- 
place of  Copernicus,  who"  rescued  astronomy  from  a  maze  of 
speculation  and  gave  it  the  dignity  of  an  exact  science ;  and 
Runnymede,  where  the  foundations  of  English  civil  liberty 
were  laid ;  the  workshop  of  Stephenson,  where  the  application 
of  steam  to  locomotion  made  possible  our  splendid  systems 
of  transportation ;  Independence  Hall  at  Philadelphia,  revered 
by  patriotic  Americans  as  the  cradle  of  liberty. 

I  might  multiply  other  equally  striking  instances  where 
the  homage  of  mankind  has  lagged  behind  the  just  deserts  of 
genius,  and  only  after  the  lapse  of  years  has  the  world  paid 
its  debt  to  its  benefactors  by  according  a  rich  measure  of 
honor  and  gratitude  to  their  memories. 

In  the  light  of  history,  therefore,  it  is  doubly  significant  of 
the  progressive  age  in  which  we  live,  as  well  as  of  the  remark- 
ably sound  and  rapid  development  of  the  most  thorough, 
practical,  helpful  and  far-reaching  movement  in  the  agrarian 
life  of  the  nation,  that  already,  in  less  than  ten  years  from  the 
inception  of  that  movement  the  eyes  of  the  American  people, 
from  Coast  to  Coast,  are  turned  with  increasing  respect  and 
admiration  to  Broome  County  as  the  Cradle  of  the  Farm 
Bureau  Idea. 

When  the  historian  of  the  future  shall  write  down  for  pos- 
terity the  story  of  this  vital  development  in  the  farm  life  of 
America,  he  will  first  pay  grateful  homage  to  that  far-seeing, 
practical  man,  in  whose  mind  was  conceived  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  whole  Farm  Bureau  Idea — Prof.  W.  J.  Spill- 
man — then  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Farm  Management  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

It  was  Dr.  Spillman  who,  after  a  number  of  years  of  patient 
and  searching  intensive  experiments  with  demonstration  farms 
all  over  this  country — with  local  demonstration  agents  in  the 
South — and  with  the  various  other  constructive  measures 
employed  by  the  Government  to  assist  the  farmer  in  syste- 
matizing his  work  along  scientific  lines,  reached  the  definite 
conclusion  that  the  one  effective  way  to  achieve  worth-while 
results  was  to  form  county  groups  of  farmers  to  co-operate 


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with  county  agents  in  close,  compact  and  responsive  organiza- 
tions. By  intelligent  and  progressive  methods  of  study  and 
experiment  it  was  proposed  to  increase  the  fertility  of  the  soil 
by  profiting  by  the  discoveries  of  science,  eliminating  wasteful 
methods,  and  to  jointly  market  their  products. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  in  the  Fall  of  1910 — while  Traffic 
Manager  of  the  Lackawanna  Railroad — and  keenly  interested, 
both  personally  and  officially,  in  furthering  agricultural  de- 
velopment— to  meet  Dr.  Spillman,  with  the  happy  result  re- 
ferred to  in  a  letter  I  received  from  him  a  few  days  ago. 

In  this  letter  he  says : 

Washington,  D.  C, 
August  13th,  1920. 

Mr.  Geo.  A.  Cullen, 
North  American  Fruit  Exchange, 
90  West  Street,  New  York. 
Dear  Mr.  Cullen: — 

Referring  to  our  recent  conversation  about  the 
Farm  Bureau  movement,  I  think  the  magnitude  this 
movement  has  assumed  justifies  setting  down  some  of 
the  facts  concerning  the  first  and  farm  bureau  organ- 
ized in  this  country. 

The  inception  of  the  movement  was  the  letter  you 
wrote  me  proposing  that  the  Office  of  Farm  Manage- 
ment, of  which  I  was  then  chief,  co-operate  with  the 
Lackawanna  Railroad  in  undertaking  some  special 
work  for  the  benefit  of  agriculture  at  three  points 
along  that  road  in  the  state  of  New  York.  At  your 
suggestion  I  visited  Binghamton  with  a  view  to  dis- 
cussing ways  and  means  of  starting  this  work.  As  a 
result  of  this  visit  it  was  finally  arranged  that  the 
Lackawanna  road,  the  Binghamton  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, the  Agricultural  Department  at  Cornell,  and 
the  Office  of  Farm  Management  co-operate  in  de- 
veloping an  organization  for  the  purpose  of  support- 
ing an  agricultural  expert  with  headquarters  at  Bing- 
hamton who  would  devote  his  entire  time  to  a  study 
of  the  local  agriculture  with  a  view  of  rendering  such 
assistance  as  might  be  possible  to  the  farmers  of 
Broome  County.  If  the  work  produced  results  of 
sufficient  value  similar  work  was  to  be  started  at  other 
points  along  the  road. 

Previous  to  that  time  only  one  county  agent  had 
been  appointed  in  this  country,  though  there  were  a 
number  of  local  demonstration  agents  in  the  cotton 
growing  states.  In  no  case  had  there  been  a  local  or- 
ganization that  had  assumed  any  responsibility  for  the 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/cradleoffarmbureOOcullrich 


support  and  direction  of  work  of  this  character.  The 
term  Farm  Bureau  was  first  applied  to  the  organiza- 
tion at  Binghamton.  If  I  remember  correctly,  the 
office  of  Farm  Management  paid  one-third  of  the 
salary  of  the  first  man  employed  by  the  Farm  Bureau 
of  Broome  County,  the  remainder  of  the  expenses  be- 
ing borne  by  the  Lackawanna  Railroad  and  the  Bing- 
hamton Chamber  of  Commerce.  The  college  at  Cor- 
nell aided  materially  by  way  of  advice  and  counsel 
on  the  parts  of  the  various  experts  at  the  college. 

The  work  in  Broome  County  was  so  successful 
that  the  two  other  stations  were  soon  established 
along  the  Lackawanna,  and  shortly  thereafter  appli- 
cations began  to  come  to  the  Office  of  Farm  Manage- 
ment for  the  establishment  of  other  bureaus  in  many 
different  states.  From  that  time  forward  the  move- 
ment developed  so  rapidly  that  it  was  difficult  to  get 
funds  to  meet  the  demands.  The  present  great  or- 
ganization known  as  the  American  Farm  Bureau 
Federation  is  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  movement 
which  thus  had  its  inception  in  Broome  County,  N.  Y. 

Please  remember  me  kindly  to  the  good  people  of 
Broome  County,  whose  hearty  co-operation  made  the 
work  there  so  successful. 

Sincerely  yours, 
(Signed)     W.  J.  SPILLMAN. 

This  was  the  nucleus  of  a  movement  fraught  with  splendid 
possibilities  and  rich  in  accomplished  facts.  It  has  been  a 
tremendous  factor  in  applying  scientific  methods  to  the  culti- 
vation of  the  soil,  bearing  substantial  rewards  in  larger  yields 
and  higher  market  returns.  And  if  the  past  is  a  dependable 
prophet  of  the  future,  this  movement  is  but  in  its  infancy  as 
to  its  potentialities  for  good. 

In  conversation  two  weeks  ago  with  Mr.  J.  R.  Howard, 
President  of  the  American  Farm  Bureau  Federation,  he  told 
me  that  the  membership  of  the  Federation  is  over  a  million 
and  a  quarter,  and  that  he  confidently  expects  to  see  it  pass 
the  two  million  mark  before  the  end  of  the  year. 

You  pioneers  of  Broome  County  may  indeed  feel  proud 
of  the  splendid  distinction  which  is  yours  of  striking  out  into 
the  wilderness  of  disorganization  which  existed  ten  years  ago, 
and  establishing  an  institution  which  promises  more  for  the 
betterment  of  farm  life,  especially  in  its  economic  features, 
than  any  other  force  ever  enlisted  in  this  productive  depart- 
ment of  human  endeavor.  It  is  a  monument  to  your  vision 
and  your  initiative — one  that  commemorates  a  movemnnt  that 
has  and  will  contribute  to  the  lasting  welfare  and  happiness 
of  the  American  people. 


So  much  for  the  honored  past.  As  forward  looking  men 
and  women  we  are  not  nearly  so  much  interested  in  what  we 
have  done  as  what  we  shall  do. 

I  have  in  my  hand  a  clipping  from  the  front  page  of  the 
"New  York  Tribune"  of  August  19th  (two  days  ago).  Here 
is  what  the  Tribune  reports : 

sandwich   men   sprang   to   do   his 
bidding. 

Panoplied  in  the  accouterments 
of  their  trade,  they  were  reviewed 
by  Dr.  Robert  Grimshaw,  who 
inscribed  upon  them,  fore  and  aft, 
the  wholesale  prices  of  tomatoes, 
potatoes,  green  corn,  cucumbers, 
lettuce  and  so  forth.  Thus  armed, 
he  sent  them  forth,  to  battle 
silently  for  his  cause. 

Prices  Begin  to  Tumble 

All  the  morning  the  valiant 
mercenaries  trudged  up  one  side 
of  Broadway,  down  the  other, 
across  177th  Street,  up  St.  Nicho- 
las Avenue  to  181st  Street,  down 
the  other  side  of  the  avenue  to 
177th  Street  and  back  to  Broad- 
way. Housewives  out  for  their 
morning  marketing  read  that  to- 
matoes that  were  labeled  20  cents 
in  all  the  stores  roundabout  were 
to  be  had  at  wholesale  for  4  cents 
or  less. 

They  saw  similar  contrasts  in 
the  other  prices  quoted  by  the 
grocers  and  flaunted  by  the  plod- 
ding sandwich  men  and  they  told 
the  grocers  what  they  thought 
about  it.  By  noon  the  grocers' 
prices  were  wavering  and  falling 
on  all  sides.  By  early  afternoon 
many  of  them  had  been  divided 
by  four  or  five.  Dr.  Grimshaw 
called  off  his  sandwich  men.  He 
was  modestly  elated. 

"Others  -in  other  districts,"  he 
said,  "can  and  should  do  just  what 
I  have  done  in  Washington 
Heights." 


PROFESSOR  AND  EIGHT 
SANDWICH  MEN  LOWER 
PRICES  ON  THE  HEIGHTS 

"There  was  a  time  when  the 
neighbors  of  Dr.  Robert  Grim- 
shaw on  Washington  Heights 
looked  askance  upon  his  schemes 
for  making  that  community  Man- 
hattan's hilltop  Utopia,  but  since 
yesterday  noon  they  have  been 
behind  him — to  a  woman.  It  was 
three  weeks  ago  that  Dr.  Grim- 
shaw, a  mechanical  engineer  of 
note  and  a  member  of  the  faculty 
of  the  College  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  pronounced  his  ultimatum. 

Prices  were  much  higher  at  the 
stores  near  his  home  than  the 
altitude  of  Washington  Heights 
warranted.  He  served  notice  on 
dealers,  particularly  on  dealers  in 
fruits  and  vegetables,  that  prices 
must  come  down.  If  they  failed 
to  come  down,  said  Dr.  Grim- 
shaw, he  would  bring  them  down. 

Grocers  Snicker  at  Warning 
Washington  Heights  laughed 
up  its  sleeve  and  the  snicker  was 
echoed  more  or  less  politely  by 
every  grocer  along  Broadway  and 
St.  Nicholas  Avenue  from  177th 
Street  to  181st  Street. 

Dr.  Robert  Grimshaw  said 
nothing  whatever.  When  three 
weeks  had  expired  yesterday  and 
he  noted  the  same  wide  margin 
between  wholesale  prices  and 
those  which  his  grocer-neighbors 
pasted  above  their  tomatoes,  po- 
tatoes, green  corn,  cucumbers,  let- 
tuce and  so  forth,  Dr.  Grimshaw 
crooked  his  little  finger  and  eight 


I  do  not  know  how  accurate  this  report  is  nor  am  I  one  to 
believe  everything  that  is  said  against  the  so-called  middle- 
man. The  distributor,  in  some  form,  is  just  as  necessary  to 
our  national  life  *  as  the  circulatory  system  is  to  our  bodies. 
I  do  know,  however,  and  you  know,  that  there  is  to-day, 
as  there  has  always  been,  too  large  a  spread  between  what 
the  producer  receives  and  what  the  consumer  pays  for  farm 
products,  especially  perishables — fruits  and  vegetables. 


No  one  except  a  Lenine  or  a  Trotsky  would  pretend  to 
be  able  to  reform  immediately  our  whole  marketing  system, 
but  reform  must  come  and  come  without  unreasonable  delay 
if  the  grower  is  to  get  his  due  and  the  consumer  cease  to  be 
obliged  to  pay  prices  that  in  turn  call  for  a  wage  scale  that 
creates  the  vicious  circle  of  high  living  cost  that  is  causing 
so  much  unrest  among  our  people  to-day. 

I  am  unalterably  opposed  to  any  further  development  of 
class-consciousness  in  this  country  and  I  am  only  advocating 
team  work  when  I  say  that  the  consumer  must  deal  with  his 
end  of  the  problem — buying  his  food  more  cheaply — while  the 
Farmer  copes  with  his  end,  which  of  course  is  getting  better 
prices  for  his  products.  Between  the  two  I  imagine  a  good 
many  parasites  are  going  to  get  pinched,  but,  I  suspect  they 
will  be  happier  in  the  end  and  after  they  have  learned  to  lead 
useful  lives. 

Now,  what  is  the  Farmer  to  do?  Here  is  where  the  great 
usefulness  of  the  Farm  Bureau  is  manifesting  itself  and  is  going 
to  do  so  in  greatly  increasing  force  in  the  future.  The  Farm 
Bureaus  of  the  country  are,  I  believe,  to-day  giving  more 
attention  to  their  marketing  facilities  than  to  any  other  of 
their  problems.    And  naturally  so. 

They  realize  that  while  fertilizer  makes  more  bushels  per 
acre  co-operative  marketing  makes  more  dollars  per  man. 

Co-operative  marketing  is  coming  to  be  recognized  as  the 
one  means  by  which  the  farmer  can  get  away  from  the  condi- 
tion under  which  the  buyer  fixes  the  price  of  the  product — a 
condition  economically  unsound — and  reach  a  point  where  he 
can  ask  and  get  a  price  which  will  yield  him  a  just  reward  for 
his  toil.  Co-operative  marketing  means,  if  not  the  elimination, 
the  control  of  the  speculator  and  the  stabilizing  of  the  whole 
industry. 

Yes,  asks  the  skeptic — made  a  skeptic  perhaps  by  co- 
operative marketing  experiments  of  a  visionary  or  Utopian 
character,  many  of  which  have  been  tried  but  to  fail — what 
essentials  are  involved  in  a  successful  co-operative  marketing 
plan? 

I  will  try  to  outline  them  to  you  in  a  few  words : 

First:  The  impossible  must  not  be  attempted  nor  must 
effort  be  made  to  reach  the  ideal  at  one  bound 

Second :  It  must  be  recognized  that  we  live  in  an  age  of 
specialization  and  success  in  any  business  lies  in  the  employ- 
ment of  specialists  to  do  work  requiring  special  training  and 
familiarity  with  marketing  conditions. 

Third:  There  are  several  distinct  and  separate  general 
divisions  of  marketing,  such  as  grain  (including  hay)  live- 
stock, dairying  produce,  fruits  and  vegetables  and  possibly 
one  or  two  others,  each  of  which  requires  knowledge  of  trade 


conditions,   the   consumers'   requirements,   credits   and   trans- 
portation different  from  any  of  the  others. 

Fourth:  Any  system  of  distribution  that  is  dependent  on 
local  markets  is  subject  to  violent  variations  ranging  from 
extreme  scarcity  to  ruinous  gluts  and  therefore  any  sound 
system  must  ensure  outlet  at  all  times  to  the  widest  possible 
range  of  markets ;  a  system  that  will  at  all  times  place  the 
product  where  it  is  needed  when  it  is  needed — and  that  really 
is  the  crux  of  the  whole  marketing  problem. 

Fifth:  As  an  absolutely  essential  part  of  placing  the  prod- 
uct where  it  is  needed  when  it  is  needed  is  a  system  of  ascer- 
taining accurately  from  day  to  day  the  consumers'  needs  in 
all  available  markets  and  disseminating  that  knowledge  to  all 
growers  co-operating  in  a  given  marketing  organization.  I 
may  say  right  here  that  there  is  only  one  sure  way  this  infor- 
mation can  be  made  reliable.  It  does  the  grower  little  good 
to  know  what  the  demand  was  in  Cleveland  or  Pittsburg  or 
Philadelphia  or  New  York  last  week  or  even  what  it  was 
yesterday.  He  must  know  what  it  is  now  and  the  only  way 
he  can  know  that  is  on  the  basis  of  a  confirmed  order  for  his 
product. 

Sixth:  The  Grower  must  have  a  nation-wide  system  of 
distribution  that  not  only  secures  for  him  the  confirmed  orders 
just  referred  to,  but  a  system  that  provides  him  with  repre- 
sentatives in  the  various  markets  who  serve  his  interests  and 
his  alone,  and  are  not  interested  in  the  buying  but  only  in  the 
selling  of  his  product  so  as  to  do  away  with  the  pernicious 
practices  of  rejections  and  deductions  that  now  always  accom- 
pany a  declining  market  and  sometimes  even  a  rising  one. 

Seventh:  The  Grower  must  recognize  the  primary  busi- 
ness aspects  of  the  national  marketing  problem  and  examine 
very  carefully  into  the  ability  of  any  marketing  agency  or 
system  to  give  him  continuous  and  dependable  service.  He 
must,  and  he  naturally  will,  view  with  great  caution  any  or- 
ganization officered  and  conducted  by  those  dependent  for 
their  positions  on  what  may  be  called  political  considerations, 
by  which  is  meant,  of  course,  the  wire-pulling,  intrigue,  per- 
sonal jealousies  and  ambitions,  which  are  so  much  in  evidence 
when  one  set  of  officers  can  be  turned  out  of  office  on  short 
notice,  and  the  swapping  of  horses  while  crossing  streams  go 
on  year  after  year,  with  the  resultant  impairment  of  morale 
and  efficiency  in  operations  with  the  business  world. 

In  conclusion  I  may  say  that  in  organization  within  County 
Farm  Bureaus  and  in  co-operation  between  groups  of  Bureaus 
lies  to-day  the  farmer's  surest  reliance  for  dealing  through 
disinterested  selling  organizations  and  securing  the  protection 
and  prosperity  which  is  so  justly  his  due. 


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